I'm very excited!!! And thrilled that the Kindle edition has text-to-speech enabled. I've been locked out of comic books for the past 30 years, and only now are there audio and accessible digital versions coming out! Love your channel - brilliant review!
@@CaptainXJ I did! Announcements were sent to the backers at the appropriate level(s). If you didn’t receive one, your email address might not be listed correctly on the Kickstarter campaign. Shoot me a message on there if this is this case, and I’ll rectify it ASAP. Thanks!
This is exactly what I need right now. I've been in a hospital room all night taking care of someone, I'm tired and uncomfortable, and I'm super stressed. Thank you Austin, I'm sure I'll enjoy this greatly.
I like to think in spiderman no way home this version of peter came to the mcu and a 70 something year old peter parker was just wondering around New York confused
Honestly that makes a lot of sense. He's just wandering around like Eddie Brock was; trying to figure out what is going on, then he gets zapped back home again for seemingly no reason. Honestly it'd probably seem like some weird dream more than anything else.
@@pattheplanter Given that crashes/being run over at like 10mph is apparently fatal in his universe, the drivers of the MCU reality must seem suicidally prone to risk taking.
I was 13 in 1977 and watched all these episodes on TV as they were aired, and loved them! Lots of swords and karate because that Kung-fu was all the rage in the late 1970s,. Also, that shot of Spiderman swinging between two buildings was an actual stuntman swinging on a rope between those buildings with no safety net!
It's funny how in the video Austin was like "they reused this shot again." I was thinking "of course they did. They're not going to make the stunt guy do that more than once."
Well I mean it's just what is needed to make an atomic bomb and can be dangerous just by being near you, why would the people of New York need to know about any of this?
@@JamesTobiasStewart I mean recently a railcar loaded with more than 60000 pounds of ammonium nitrate(explosive part in makin a bomb) was found empty at a rail stop in the Mojave Desert and almost no major front page news coverage.
I saw the last film multiple times when I was a little kid - for some reason, family friends who babysitted me had a copy of it. It honestly feels like a total fever dream. I have very clear memories of Spidey in Hong Kong, but not much else! This was in the UK
I will say I love that you not only put a lot of effort into the editing, but to the costume and lighting for your talking head footage. Love your videos man!
I was just the right age to see the TV series that these movies were kitbashed from. Few things: the love interest in the second movie was played by Joanna Cameron, who was very familiar with superhero TV shows, being the lead in the Saturday morning superhero show Isis. If you go to 20:05, the army guy is being played by Ted Danson, who went on to Cheers, The Good Place, etc. And, the love interest in the third movie was played by a very young Rosalind Chao, who's been in many things, not least of which Star Trek (TNG and DS9) as Keiko O'Brien.
I remember that version of Spiderman. My dad rented it on VHS at our town's video rental store. I liked it as a kid, because I really liked Spider Man back then. I also rented a VHS with episodes of the old animated cartoon show, the one from 1967. I also loved those. If you liked these, you should see the Roger Corman produced version of the Fantastic Four made in 1994
Home radio devices were a hobby back in the day. There are still leftovers of the licensing industry for it. They actually reused most of the action shots in this. There are many scenes of crawling, swinging, and driving that crop up three or four times
God dammit! I saw these on TV as a kid, my mom had seen them, and I loved them! They were wonderful crap. Exactly what "live action comic" means to me... along with 60s batman. When I tried to bring this show up in college when everyone was excited for the Toby Maguire iteration everyone thought I was nuts! When I asked my mom about it she had forgotten about them by then, so I've felt gaslit about it ever since especially when 5 years ago I tried finding reference online and it took 6 months of occasional scratching to prove to myself they were real, though the scenes I remember were not in the flick I finally found. Thank you for scratching this 35 yr old itch! They may have been made a decade before I saw em but they sure stuck with me!
Just to be fair. Batman was good. They did Spider Man, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Dr. Stange, Man Thing, Howard the Duck, And Maybe more. They ALL sucked.
17:22 You forgot to mention the scene, where the lady appears wearing a white bikini. The villain forces her to wear it, because in that way, he makes sure that she doesn´t hide any kind of guns. I love that scene.
I totally would watch a multiverse Spider Man film with this Spider Man, Japanese Spider Man, and Italian Spider Man. Somebody please make this happen somehow......
@@VRnamek , no, that was a completely different one. Also, Sega had their own Spider-Man games that they made years later, one for arcades and one for the Sega/Mega CD.
I adored this show when I was a kid - we used to go to the local sports club to sit on lawn chairs and watch it. Now I have it on both VHS tape and DVD (I suspect, bootleg DVDs). I just wish Nicholas Hammond had been given a little cameo in the last Spider-Man film, that would have been perfect.
@Insanitywelcome ... I'm right there with you & ENJOYED the Series as a kid. Nicholas WAS our Spider-Man back then along with The Electric Company's Spider-Man played by Actor Danny Seagren who was actually the 1st to do the Live Action Version 🤔😲😂
Oh I don't want to watch them but love Austin's reviews of them. The reviews are hilarious Much like I dont like watching bad movies that come out now but man Ryan George Pitch Meetings of them are epic awesome.
@@austinmcconnell If you think this was "Campy, Corny & or Cheesey, allow me to take you back a bit EARLIER to The Electric Company (1971-77) version of the 1st "Live Action" Spider-Man played by Actor Danny Seagren of which you can view HERE on You-Tube & PERHAPS do a vid on 🤔 It's HILARIOUS but back THEN those of us of a particular age (Gen-X) ENJOYED IT 😂
Hey, I liked "The Dragon's Challenge" ("The Chinese Web" when it originally aired). I was 10 when the show came out so this was MY live action Spidey. I'm Asian too so it was cool to see on prime time TV. I actually got my mom to watch some of it with me and she never watched any of my weird shows with me.
I am old enough to have seen this TV show. Fortunately (until today) I was able to block remembering it from my mind. Thanks, Austin! BTW-that music was in just about every late 70's dramatic/adventure show. I think there was some sort of law it had to be used or something.
Oddly enough, I do remember seeing something about this series (aside from the "and this is a gun" clip). A while ago I got a giant book called Marvel: The Characters and Their Universe, and several sections of it are about these old shows. At the time I questioned why it didn't mention the more recent stuff at the time, especially since the date listed for copyright was 2012, but after looking it up, it was originally published in *2001*. They must've updated it a little after because they talk about the 2002 Sam Raimi film and a creative team signing on for the sequel, as well as the short-lived Neil Patrick Harris animated series being in production. It's honestly fascinating to see a book like this that was released at a time before Iron Man, the Fantastic Four films, and even stuff like Daredevil and X2: X-Men United
Fun fact: In the first film, J. Jonah Jamison is played by David White, aka Darin's ridiculously insincere boss in the Bewitched TV series. You can cross that one off of your useless information bingo card.
This was the first ever Spider-Man I was introduced with by my dad when I was around 4 and it’s actually go this incredibly goofy charm to it that’s a ton of fun, as a spidey fan, I’d love a blu ray or dvd box set of the series, I think u can only get the vhs tapes of the movies in the uk
I had all 3 of these on VHS back in the day. The series was fine for what it was and the era it was made in. I'm amazed that they were never released on DVD!
Stuntman Fred Waugh had tremendous balls of steel doing that always reused web swinging scene between buildings sans CGI back in the day. His daring stunt in the Dragon's challenge movie also deserves more respect where he is actually scaling that skyscraper dozens of floors up in a flimsy Spidey suit.
Cool video!...I'd never heard of these films or the live action series and I was a kid in the 70s!.....After watching your video I looked up the Wikipedia article about the first movie and it states that in an overseas release, the movie actually earned $9 million at the box office! (which - given what the film looks like - I find really hard to believe). As far as ignoring the movie's existence, I am guessing that Marvel admires these early Spiderman films as much as Lucas admires the "Star Wars Holiday Special".
The third film looked so much more exciting in stills in a two page spread coverage, in a german Bravo magazine to the young me back in the eighties, yet I've never managed to watch it ... yet. Thank you for putting this review together!
I owned "the dragons challenge" on VHS as a kid, used to watch it constantly, loved it, always wondered why nobody knew about the Spiderman movie that came out before the raimi movies
Fun facts, Gale in movie two is played by JoAnna Cameron, who is best known for playing the first TV superheroine to headline her own show in the Secrets of Isis, which was produced along with the 1970s Shazam (Captain Marvel) tv series, even did a crossover episode. Also, in movie three Min's niece is played by Rosalind Chao who played Keiko O'Brien in Star Trek TNG and DS9
I watched this series on TV in the early 80's. It was awful but compelling. LOL I recognise the girl in the first movie, I don't know where from though. I love the Japanese live action series from the 70's, the effects and the fight scene choreography was spot on. It was practical effects, not camera effects. (it's a shame nearly every episode ended EXACTLY the same, spiderman vs a mecha-monster) I hope you are keeping well, Austin. Great review.
I watched this show when it first aired in 1977. But it's probably been at least 40 years since I've seen it. But as I recall, Peter Parker was a college student, possibly a graduate student. He was definitely not in high school. I recall that I liked the 1960s animated series more than this one. The guy who did the voice in the animated series, Paulk Soles, also did Bruce Banner in the animated Hulk series. They gave him a role as Stanley, the pizza guy in The Incredible Hulk. I think it's a shame he never got to cameo in a Spider-Man film before he died in 2021. Nicholas Hammond is still with us (he had a cameo as a director in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). He should get to cameo in Secret Wars or some other Marvel multiverse movie. It's funny, but the role most people will first associate with Nicholas Hammond is The Sound Of Music. But to me, he is, first and foremost, the actor who played the second live-action Spider-Man. The first live-action Spider-Man appeared on the Electric Company (co-starring with Morgan Freeman). But I have no idea who was inside the costume.
I totally agree. I was in grade school when these originally aired and thought they were awesome. We really didn’t have much else to compare them to. It’s a crime that Nicholas Hammond hasn’t been given a cameo in any of the Spiderman films. There’s a whole generation of us who’d really enjoy that.
@@samson7842 At the very least, they could have referenced Nicholas Hammond's Spider-Man in Across the Spiderverse. While they could have had a Spider-Man with a utility belt and a bulky web shooter around one wrist, I think a better reference would be a Spider-Man playing Friedrich von Trapp in a production of The Sound of Music.
(Sigh) Yes I'm old and yes THIS is my Spider-Man and all those shows I grew up with, lol. But to us, even though we wanted some actual super-villains, this was actually a cool show. Of course we also sat there in our bell-bottoms next to our lava lamps thinking we were cool, so to each their own. But I gotta say that even though I was doubtful he'd show up, Hammond not being in No Way Home was a big disappointment. Now check out Clutch Cargo.
I remember these as I saw at least one of them in the UK in a tiny local cinema. As a result I never once thought of the Toby films were 'the originals'!
I should call my congressman and ask for a loan of plutonium. My justification will be that the Carter Administration loaned Spiderman's professor plutonium lol 😂
I watched this show quite often on Sci-Fi channel. They'd play the movies as part of their frequent Mighty Marvel Movie Marathon alongside the other 1970s live-action classics. Good times.
Ok, this is insane. I'm originally from Israel and all my life I had this vague memory of seeing a spider-man live action film when I was like 5 or 6. When the Sam Raimi movie came out I said to my friends that there was another live action spider-man and they all went 'no there wasn't'. Nobody remembered it but me! They all thought I somehow mis-remembered the animated series from the 70s (Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends), but I insisted it was live action. Anyway, we had better things to argue about so I just let it go (although I never doubted my memory of it) and I forgot about it for 20 years. Today TH-cam suggested this video and I was screaming at the screen THAT'S IT! THAT'S THE CRAP SPIDER MAN MOVIE I REMEMBER WATHCING AS A KID! None of those friends from 20 years ago is in my life anymore, so if one of them happens to see this comment - fuck you, I knew I was right! 😆
I saw all three on the big screen in Australia and I loved them. Absolutely superb at the time. To this day, it's the only live action Spider-Man that isn't CGI, but an actual stunt man on buildings.
I watched this too in the late 70s. And I absolutely loved it. Flash 40 years later....I found a DVD set recorded from vhs with all the episodes. And yes, it's hard to watch now(soo sloww), but it was my holy grail. Looked for a set for 20 years till I found one.
Thanks a lot for this video! I had these movies VHS and watched them on repeat on family holidays, this video was a treat. I definitely dont remember them being this bad though 😂 i remember the students making an atomic bomb remarkably well
The spiderman suit in these movies looks more realistic. If some teenage kid decided to be a superhero, that's exactly how crappy his costume would look
Yelp 1977, I was a 5yr and had the Spiderman 12inch tall doll . It came with the cloth jumpsuit, and red hook and line ( web string ). I'd along with my youg mother and siblings watched Spiderman on TV. It was a movie that came on TV as special. However I seem to recall it coming on television on Saturdays. ...? I still unto this very day remember, my dad bringing me home that Spiderman figure in 1978. I miss my parents, and this video shows you're a true comic book historian . Time stamped 5:24am (6-19-23)💯💙👍
I had spiderman strikes back on vhs as a kid and had no idea there were 2 others. I enjoyed it as a kid but even then it felt really strange compared to any other Spider-man media I had been exposed to at the time (1st Raimi movie, ps1 games and the 90s cartoon) That being said, I'd still come back to watch this one quite often
Back then you watched it for free and if you didn't like it you could change the channel. Now nothing is free and you might as well watch it you paid for it.
When this tv series aired the local cable companies ditched the show after the first episode. Thanks for covering this one... totally forgot until I saw this. lolz
I recall watching the first movie back in the day, and the only thing that stood out, from memory, was how Jonah suddenly claimed that Spider Man was a menace, for no apparent reason. At least, I think it was that movie. I'd hate to think there was another.
I remember getting the dragon's challenge on VHS from one of those discount store racks in the early 90's. Young Rosalind Chao, better known at that time as Keiko O'Brien from DS9
..... And it is so much cheaper to get a documentary visa than an action visa, so do action scenes in US, and make some documentary scenes on location.
I have acquired the whole series. It was hard to get hold of. You forgot to mention that it was filmed in Washington DC where they only had a couple of tall buildings. As for the effects, it was really hard to get a man to walk on a tall building without CGI. I mean it is incredibly dangerous.
Oh, my God, this unlocked an ancient memory. I saw at least the first movie on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 90s (while waiting for the much better Incredible Hulk movies to come on), and I've more or less given up trying to convince people with less nerdy childhoods that it happened. If anything, you have undersold the amount of cheese.
I actually really like these. Not perfect but there's some charm to it. I wish there were more semi-grounded Spider-Man stories like this. As much as a love wacky supervillains and multiverse hijinks, Spider-Man's M.O. is focusing on the smaller stuff and for the most part they did the character decent.
I saw one of these once when I was about six, so when the first Raimi movie came out, all the press around it was about how this was the first ever live-action Spider-Man adaptation, and I was like no, there was another... Or was there? Did I imagine it?
"Are you on drugs?" Hahahahahaha! Cheesy 70s TV is so much fun. I'm not sure if I saw these back in the day. But the Spidey actor looks vaguely familiar. (I can't believe we're supposed to believe he's a teenager. LOL!)
I recall seeing the second movie at the cinema (in the U.K.) but if I remember correctly these films (or possibly just the 3rd and last one) weren’t the main release going up against the likes of Raiders etc, but they were understood to be low budget B movies or “support” films as back then the main film you went to see would have a shorter support movie shown beforehand with an intermission between the 2 films.
8:30 - "By the way, they keep looping the same song over and over." Yeah it's called a leit motiv, a music theme for the main character. Most movies do it, specially superhero movies since the first one ever made until today.
Austin actually looks cool asf in the Spidey suit. Also I saw these movies on youtube back in the day and I remember absolutely loving them, granted I was like 11.
THE SPIDER-QUEEN is out NOW in paperback and eBook! bit.ly/SpiderQueenBook
@Don't Read My Profile Picture find a hobby
I'm very excited!!! And thrilled that the Kindle edition has text-to-speech enabled. I've been locked out of comic books for the past 30 years, and only now are there audio and accessible digital versions coming out!
Love your channel - brilliant review!
Sounds cool! I'm broke until next payday, but will get one when I can!
@@CaptainXJ I did! Announcements were sent to the backers at the appropriate level(s). If you didn’t receive one, your email address might not be listed correctly on the Kickstarter campaign. Shoot me a message on there if this is this case, and I’ll rectify it ASAP. Thanks!
@@austinmcconnell is it a comic or a novel?
"I'm you, and you're me, and this is a gun."
A line as iconic as Citizen Kane's "Rosebud."
Literally the ad that followed for me was "And this is our premium ice cream" or something along those lines
at least the line in spider man made sense. rosebud made ZERO sense as there was no one there to hear it said. literally ruins the entire movie.
Citizen Kaine*
@@indoorplant2392 Not according to google, but perhaps there is a translation I am not aware of.
That line would work perfectly in beyond the spider verse
This is exactly what I need right now. I've been in a hospital room all night taking care of someone, I'm tired and uncomfortable, and I'm super stressed.
Thank you Austin, I'm sure I'll enjoy this greatly.
Hey Dakota! Hope things are okay. Hang in there. You’ll get through it. Take care.
Take care man! I hope you feel better soon!
All Hopes things get better
Hope things get better, sending my wishes
Hope everything is going well for you now!
I like to think in spiderman no way home this version of peter came to the mcu and a 70 something year old peter parker was just wondering around New York confused
I'd have paid to see that. Literally.
Honestly that makes a lot of sense. He's just wandering around like Eddie Brock was; trying to figure out what is going on, then he gets zapped back home again for seemingly no reason.
Honestly it'd probably seem like some weird dream more than anything else.
"Wow, the cars go really fast in this alternate Universe."
@@pattheplanter Given that crashes/being run over at like 10mph is apparently fatal in his universe, the drivers of the MCU reality must seem suicidally prone to risk taking.
I was 13 in 1977 and watched all these episodes on TV as they were aired, and loved them! Lots of swords and karate because that Kung-fu was all the rage in the late 1970s,. Also, that shot of Spiderman swinging between two buildings was an actual stuntman swinging on a rope between those buildings with no safety net!
Woah, that's a pretty crazy stunt in that case-
@@skin_lizard Stuntmen had some balls back then, doing that kinda stuff with no safety
@@RadikAlice Yeah, probably for the best that there are usually safety measures nowadays. Still super cool!
It's funny how in the video Austin was like "they reused this shot again." I was thinking "of course they did. They're not going to make the stunt guy do that more than once."
@@skin_lizard Agreed
I love the fact that the "stolen plutonium" story only makes it to page 10 of the newspaper
Makes you wonder what sort of important news ended up on the first 9 pages
well u know it takes a Libyan terrorist group to steal it to make the first page 😂
Well I mean it's just what is needed to make an atomic bomb and can be dangerous just by being near you, why would the people of New York need to know about any of this?
@@JamesTobiasStewart I mean recently a railcar loaded with more than 60000 pounds of ammonium nitrate(explosive part in makin a bomb) was found empty at a rail stop in the Mojave Desert and almost no major front page news coverage.
It was the 70's after all. It was a strange time.
I saw the last film multiple times when I was a little kid - for some reason, family friends who babysitted me had a copy of it. It honestly feels like a total fever dream. I have very clear memories of Spidey in Hong Kong, but not much else! This was in the UK
YES. I thought it must have been some weird japanese knock off film, I never realised it was actually official
@@alasdairdew That was exactly my thought too when I remembered it initially!
I'm guessing it was at an Odeon Cinema? I saw one of them in Liverpool!
Oops.. I misread. I saw it at a cinema, before vhs...
@@treestandsafety3996 Haha yes this was definitely on VHS - should've clarified I saw this in the early 2000s!
9:10 "You're just gonna watch him do that?"
Actually, yes. It's not every day you see a man crawl on the ceiling walls.
I will say I love that you not only put a lot of effort into the editing, but to the costume and lighting for your talking head footage. Love your videos man!
@Глеб Сальманов he was talking about austin not the movie
I was just the right age to see the TV series that these movies were kitbashed from. Few things: the love interest in the second movie was played by Joanna Cameron, who was very familiar with superhero TV shows, being the lead in the Saturday morning superhero show Isis. If you go to 20:05, the army guy is being played by Ted Danson, who went on to Cheers, The Good Place, etc. And, the love interest in the third movie was played by a very young Rosalind Chao, who's been in many things, not least of which Star Trek (TNG and DS9) as Keiko O'Brien.
I was about to mention Ted Danson and Rosalind Chao in my comment. I thought some one might have got there first. LOL.
Aw, I loved Rosalind Chao on M*A*S*H!
I loved Isis! I even had the Isis Halloween costume-- the kind with the plastic mask and the vinyl dress.
I remember that version of Spiderman. My dad rented it on VHS at our town's video rental store. I liked it as a kid, because I really liked Spider Man back then. I also rented a VHS with episodes of the old animated cartoon show, the one from 1967. I also loved those.
If you liked these, you should see the Roger Corman produced version of the Fantastic Four made in 1994
“Im you, your me, and this is a gun” 💀
That's basically pointing meme with rtx on
That scene feels like it's on the same level as the "garage day" scene
I'm dissapointed this hasn't turned into a cult meme
*you’re
@@HEX_17 social media, gets a free pass. Stop
@@HEX_17 your 'you're' isn't yours, you '*you're'er
These movies really feel like a live action version of the 70s comics, love it.
Home radio devices were a hobby back in the day. There are still leftovers of the licensing industry for it. They actually reused most of the action shots in this. There are many scenes of crawling, swinging, and driving that crop up three or four times
God dammit! I saw these on TV as a kid, my mom had seen them, and I loved them! They were wonderful crap. Exactly what "live action comic" means to me... along with 60s batman. When I tried to bring this show up in college when everyone was excited for the Toby Maguire iteration everyone thought I was nuts! When I asked my mom about it she had forgotten about them by then, so I've felt gaslit about it ever since especially when 5 years ago I tried finding reference online and it took 6 months of occasional scratching to prove to myself they were real, though the scenes I remember were not in the flick I finally found. Thank you for scratching this 35 yr old itch! They may have been made a decade before I saw em but they sure stuck with me!
Just to be fair. Batman was good. They did Spider Man, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Dr. Stange, Man Thing, Howard the Duck, And Maybe more. They ALL sucked.
This really wasn’t like the comics lol
17:22 You forgot to mention the scene, where the lady appears wearing a white bikini. The villain forces her to wear it, because in that way, he makes sure that she doesn´t hide any kind of guns. I love that scene.
I totally would watch a multiverse Spider Man film with this Spider Man, Japanese Spider Man, and Italian Spider Man.
Somebody please make this happen somehow......
Italian Spider man has an army of Penguin, he is too Over power 😄😄
Don't forget Turkish spiderman too!
Japanese Spiderman was a villain in Sega's Shinobi
@@VRnamek , no, that was a completely different one. Also, Sega had their own Spider-Man games that they made years later, one for arcades and one for the Sega/Mega CD.
Rispetta le donne! 👋
I adored this show when I was a kid - we used to go to the local sports club to sit on lawn chairs and watch it. Now I have it on both VHS tape and DVD (I suspect, bootleg DVDs). I just wish Nicholas Hammond had been given a little cameo in the last Spider-Man film, that would have been perfect.
You had me at, *"I'm you, you're me, and this is a gun."*
5:26 with those top notch vfx they better call him Sliderman instead
This is the greatest comment.
I watched this series growing up. I was born in 78, and between this and Wonder Woman and the Hulk. I was a thrilled kid lol.
@Insanitywelcome ... I'm right there with you & ENJOYED the Series as a kid.
Nicholas WAS our Spider-Man back then along with The Electric Company's Spider-Man played by Actor Danny Seagren who was actually the 1st to do the Live Action Version 🤔😲😂
Austin's the only person that makes me want to watch the most random / bizarre / cheesy old movies.
Oh I don't want to watch them but love Austin's reviews of them. The reviews are hilarious
Much like I dont like watching bad movies that come out now but man Ryan George Pitch Meetings of them are epic awesome.
@@jamesknapp64 why don't you want to watch?
"A film so laughably bad they tried to erase it from history"
I seem to remember someone else doing this with a book.
Guilty As Charged
@@austinmcconnell If you think this was "Campy, Corny & or Cheesey, allow me to take you back a bit EARLIER to The Electric Company (1971-77) version of the 1st "Live Action" Spider-Man played by Actor Danny Seagren of which you can view HERE on You-Tube & PERHAPS do a vid on 🤔
It's HILARIOUS but back THEN those of us of a particular age (Gen-X) ENJOYED IT 😂
Hey, I liked "The Dragon's Challenge" ("The Chinese Web" when it originally aired). I was 10 when the show came out so this was MY live action Spidey. I'm Asian too so it was cool to see on prime time TV. I actually got my mom to watch some of it with me and she never watched any of my weird shows with me.
Austin always bringing us quality content on wildly fascinating obscure minutiae, and also holy beans that moustache is on point
It’s a thing of beauty!
I’m not sure I could watch these films all the way through, but I could watch you talk for a loooong time. That ‘stache is legendary my dude.
JoAnna Cameron was the lady (Gail) from the 2nd film, and she also starred in her own super hero tv series "The Secrets of Isis".
I grew up with this version of Spider-Man on VHS! For atlessed a Decade! This was MY Spider-Man
Two minutes into the video and i need to watch this movie trilogy IMMEDIATELY
The whole series is equally wonderfully terrible and definitely worth watching.
I wanna watch these and compare them to the new modern films
I am old enough to have seen this TV show. Fortunately (until today) I was able to block remembering it from my mind. Thanks, Austin! BTW-that music was in just about every late 70's dramatic/adventure show. I think there was some sort of law it had to be used or something.
*Gets to the end*
Phew
“Don’t worry, the follow up flick is even weirder”
Wait we’re half way through 😂
7:36 its a 2-stroke moped not a string trimmer, remember - this was shot in the 70s...
Knowing Austin's track record with Spiderman, this guy will definitely be in the new Spiderverse film
Oddly enough, I do remember seeing something about this series (aside from the "and this is a gun" clip). A while ago I got a giant book called Marvel: The Characters and Their Universe, and several sections of it are about these old shows. At the time I questioned why it didn't mention the more recent stuff at the time, especially since the date listed for copyright was 2012, but after looking it up, it was originally published in *2001*. They must've updated it a little after because they talk about the 2002 Sam Raimi film and a creative team signing on for the sequel, as well as the short-lived Neil Patrick Harris animated series being in production. It's honestly fascinating to see a book like this that was released at a time before Iron Man, the Fantastic Four films, and even stuff like Daredevil and X2: X-Men United
Fun fact: In the first film, J. Jonah Jamison is played by David White, aka Darin's ridiculously insincere boss in the Bewitched TV series. You can cross that one off of your useless information bingo card.
This was the first ever Spider-Man I was introduced with by my dad when I was around 4 and it’s actually go this incredibly goofy charm to it that’s a ton of fun, as a spidey fan, I’d love a blu ray or dvd box set of the series, I think u can only get the vhs tapes of the movies in the uk
I had all 3 of these on VHS back in the day. The series was fine for what it was and the era it was made in.
I'm amazed that they were never released on DVD!
Stuntman Fred Waugh had tremendous balls of steel doing that always reused web swinging scene between buildings sans CGI back in the day. His daring stunt in the Dragon's challenge movie also deserves more respect where he is actually scaling that skyscraper dozens of floors up in a flimsy Spidey suit.
Cool video!...I'd never heard of these films or the live action series and I was a kid in the 70s!.....After watching your video I looked up the Wikipedia article about the first movie and it states that in an overseas release, the movie actually earned $9 million at the box office! (which - given what the film looks like - I find really hard to believe). As far as ignoring the movie's existence, I am guessing that Marvel admires these early Spiderman films as much as Lucas admires the "Star Wars Holiday Special".
@DC-1d2h ... What Star Wars "Holiday Special" ? Such a Tv Movie Does NOT Exist 🤔😉😁
@@mrkoolbreeze6998 😆😆😆
The third film looked so much more exciting in stills in a two page spread coverage, in a german Bravo magazine to the young me back in the eighties, yet I've never managed to watch it ... yet. Thank you for putting this review together!
I owned "the dragons challenge" on VHS as a kid, used to watch it constantly, loved it, always wondered why nobody knew about the Spiderman movie that came out before the raimi movies
I remember this one. The web is basically a rope that wound up to any pipes spidey found.
Fun facts, Gale in movie two is played by JoAnna Cameron, who is best known for playing the first TV superheroine to headline her own show in the Secrets of Isis, which was produced along with the 1970s Shazam (Captain Marvel) tv series, even did a crossover episode. Also, in movie three Min's niece is played by Rosalind Chao who played Keiko O'Brien in Star Trek TNG and DS9
I think that Isis later became a canonical heroic character in DC some years afterward.
Honestly wild how they managed to have absolutely none of the iconic Spider-Man villains
Wasn’t expecting Ted Danson in the 3rd film
Yeah I was just thinking, is that young Ted Danson?
I saw these as a kid early 80's they were brilliant to watch this video brought back fond memories.
I think your costume is pretty frikkin rad!
And wait -- you're telling me the third movie had no villains with swords?! What a let-down.
I had Strikes Back and The Dragon's Challenge on VHS. Loved 'em probably my earliest experience with the character.
I watched this series on TV in the early 80's. It was awful but compelling. LOL
I recognise the girl in the first movie, I don't know where from though.
I love the Japanese live action series from the 70's, the effects and the fight scene choreography was spot on. It was practical effects, not camera effects. (it's a shame nearly every episode ended EXACTLY the same, spiderman vs a mecha-monster)
I hope you are keeping well, Austin. Great review.
I'm glad you explained the plot for the last movie because I watched it a few hours ago on TH-cam and still didn't fully understand it lol
I watched this show when it first aired in 1977. But it's probably been at least 40 years since I've seen it. But as I recall, Peter Parker was a college student, possibly a graduate student. He was definitely not in high school. I recall that I liked the 1960s animated series more than this one. The guy who did the voice in the animated series, Paulk Soles, also did Bruce Banner in the animated Hulk series. They gave him a role as Stanley, the pizza guy in The Incredible Hulk. I think it's a shame he never got to cameo in a Spider-Man film before he died in 2021. Nicholas Hammond is still with us (he had a cameo as a director in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood). He should get to cameo in Secret Wars or some other Marvel multiverse movie. It's funny, but the role most people will first associate with Nicholas Hammond is The Sound Of Music. But to me, he is, first and foremost, the actor who played the second live-action Spider-Man. The first live-action Spider-Man appeared on the Electric Company (co-starring with Morgan Freeman). But I have no idea who was inside the costume.
I totally agree. I was in grade school when these originally aired and thought they were awesome. We really didn’t have much else to compare them to.
It’s a crime that Nicholas Hammond hasn’t been given a cameo in any of the Spiderman films. There’s a whole generation of us who’d really enjoy that.
@@samson7842 At the very least, they could have referenced Nicholas Hammond's Spider-Man in Across the Spiderverse. While they could have had a Spider-Man with a utility belt and a bulky web shooter around one wrist, I think a better reference would be a Spider-Man playing Friedrich von Trapp in a production of The Sound of Music.
Austin talking about this random old low budget superhero movie trilogy? YES PLEASE!
That's right peter I'm you You're me and this is a gun
I’m totally down with Austin’s new niche of spotlighting low-budget trash to piggyback off blockbuster trash.
(Sigh) Yes I'm old and yes THIS is my Spider-Man and all those shows I grew up with, lol. But to us, even though we wanted some actual super-villains, this was actually a cool show. Of course we also sat there in our bell-bottoms next to our lava lamps thinking we were cool, so to each their own. But I gotta say that even though I was doubtful he'd show up, Hammond not being in No Way Home was a big disappointment. Now check out Clutch Cargo.
I remember these as I saw at least one of them in the UK in a tiny local cinema. As a result I never once thought of the Toby films were 'the originals'!
Not gonna lie, this guy has the mustache of one of those villians you would see in video games.
I had these movies on VHS about 20 years ago and I loved them ! Along with the animates Spider-Man series !
I should call my congressman and ask for a loan of plutonium. My justification will be that the Carter Administration loaned Spiderman's professor plutonium lol 😂
I watched this show quite often on Sci-Fi channel. They'd play the movies as part of their frequent Mighty Marvel Movie Marathon alongside the other 1970s live-action classics. Good times.
Very glad someone finally did a breakdown of these so I don't have to watch them myself lol
I remember the VHS for these at the video store as a kid, they came in larger white plastic boxes and no one ever rented them out
Ok, this is insane. I'm originally from Israel and all my life I had this vague memory of seeing a spider-man live action film when I was like 5 or 6.
When the Sam Raimi movie came out I said to my friends that there was another live action spider-man and they all went 'no there wasn't'. Nobody remembered it but me! They all thought I somehow mis-remembered the animated series from the 70s (Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends), but I insisted it was live action.
Anyway, we had better things to argue about so I just let it go (although I never doubted my memory of it) and I forgot about it for 20 years.
Today TH-cam suggested this video and I was screaming at the screen THAT'S IT! THAT'S THE CRAP SPIDER MAN MOVIE I REMEMBER WATHCING AS A KID!
None of those friends from 20 years ago is in my life anymore, so if one of them happens to see this comment - fuck you, I knew I was right!
😆
I saw all three on the big screen in Australia and I loved them. Absolutely superb at the time. To this day, it's the only live action Spider-Man that isn't CGI, but an actual stunt man on buildings.
That mustache is awesome! :)
I watched this too in the late 70s. And I absolutely loved it. Flash 40 years later....I found a DVD set recorded from vhs with all the episodes. And yes, it's hard to watch now(soo sloww), but it was my holy grail. Looked for a set for 20 years till I found one.
Thanks a lot for this video! I had these movies VHS and watched them on repeat on family holidays, this video was a treat. I definitely dont remember them being this bad though 😂 i remember the students making an atomic bomb remarkably well
The entire segment for the second movie I just kept thinking about breaking bad
“Mista white”
Any news on Atlas?
Still in production! Hope to have a release announcement later this year. :)
In the half second before you said "charming niece" my brain flashed the thought "oh don't be that guy's wife"
The spiderman suit in these movies looks more realistic. If some teenage kid decided to be a superhero, that's exactly how crappy his costume would look
Yelp 1977, I was a 5yr and had the Spiderman 12inch tall doll .
It came with the cloth jumpsuit, and red hook and line ( web string ).
I'd along with my youg mother and siblings watched Spiderman on TV.
It was a movie that came on TV as special.
However I seem to recall it coming on television on Saturdays. ...?
I still unto this very day remember, my dad bringing me home that Spiderman figure in 1978.
I miss my parents, and this video shows you're a true comic book historian .
Time stamped 5:24am (6-19-23)💯💙👍
How could I be so foolish as to think Austin was gonna spit a hot take on the Raimi films!?
I had spiderman strikes back on vhs as a kid and had no idea there were 2 others. I enjoyed it as a kid but even then it felt really strange compared to any other Spider-man media I had been exposed to at the time (1st Raimi movie, ps1 games and the 90s cartoon)
That being said, I'd still come back to watch this one quite often
Back then you watched it for free and if you didn't like it you could change the channel. Now nothing is free and you might as well watch it you paid for it.
I remember in the late 80s the Spiderman 77 📼 VHS tape were 99 cents in the bargain bin as a child.
This man’s mustache is getting out of hand
When this tv series aired the local cable companies ditched the show after the first episode. Thanks for covering this one... totally forgot until I saw this. lolz
I remember the Spider Man shorts that were aired on PBS. Whenever they aired I was always surprised and so happy to watch them.
Spider AUSTIN!!
"Spider-Man: Into the McConnellVerse"
I remember watching these when I was little. I had totally forgotten about them until watching this video!
I recall watching the first movie back in the day, and the only thing that stood out, from memory, was how Jonah suddenly claimed that Spider Man was a menace, for no apparent reason. At least, I think it was that movie. I'd hate to think there was another.
I remember getting the dragon's challenge on VHS from one of those discount store racks in the early 90's. Young Rosalind Chao, better known at that time as Keiko O'Brien from DS9
..... And it is so much cheaper to get a documentary visa than an action visa, so do action scenes in US, and make some documentary scenes on location.
I have acquired the whole series. It was hard to get hold of. You forgot to mention that it was filmed in Washington DC where they only had a couple of tall buildings. As for the effects, it was really hard to get a man to walk on a tall building without CGI. I mean it is incredibly dangerous.
Oh, my God, this unlocked an ancient memory. I saw at least the first movie on the Sci-Fi Channel in the 90s (while waiting for the much better Incredible Hulk movies to come on), and I've more or less given up trying to convince people with less nerdy childhoods that it happened.
If anything, you have undersold the amount of cheese.
I think I saw this on cable back in the 90's. I started to think it was a fever dream.
Well, after seeing Austin in a Spider-Man costume I need a full film of him playing an older Peter Parker!
This is the movie where Uncle Ben dies of disco fever, but it wasn’t. The Green Goblin replaced his heart medication with LSD…
I actually really like these. Not perfect but there's some charm to it. I wish there were more semi-grounded Spider-Man stories like this. As much as a love wacky supervillains and multiverse hijinks, Spider-Man's M.O. is focusing on the smaller stuff and for the most part they did the character decent.
I saw one of these once when I was about six, so when the first Raimi movie came out, all the press around it was about how this was the first ever live-action Spider-Man adaptation, and I was like no, there was another... Or was there? Did I imagine it?
"Are you on drugs?"
Hahahahahaha! Cheesy 70s TV is so much fun. I'm not sure if I saw these back in the day. But the Spidey actor looks vaguely familiar. (I can't believe we're supposed to believe he's a teenager. LOL!)
I recall seeing the second movie at the cinema (in the U.K.) but if I remember correctly these films (or possibly just the 3rd and last one) weren’t the main release going up against the likes of Raiders etc, but they were understood to be low budget B movies or “support” films as back then the main film you went to see would have a shorter support movie shown beforehand with an intermission between the 2 films.
8:30 - "By the way, they keep looping the same song over and over." Yeah it's called a leit motiv, a music theme for the main character. Most movies do it, specially superhero movies since the first one ever made until today.
This is just the pinnacle of both cinema and television all-together👌👍
i saw the first one at the cinema as a kid and totally and completely loved it. i saw the others on TV and loved every moment.
Hammond will always be my Spider-Man. I’m 48 now and still love these films.
I remember this tv show man taking me back to nostalgia ville. I lived in kansas city Missouri as a kid.
Spider-Queen sounds like a really dope member of your team 👍🏼
love this series, and was sorely disappointed that they didn't give Nicholas Hammond some sort of cameo in the last movie.
Austin actually looks cool asf in the Spidey suit. Also I saw these movies on youtube back in the day and I remember absolutely loving them, granted I was like 11.